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DIY8 Update - Sandy Bridge? NOT YET!!

Intel Sandy Bridge chipset has flaw; shipments halted (1/31/11)

Intel announced today that it has discovered a design flaw in the 6-series chipset that is used in its new processor family, code-named Sandy Bridge and announced at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in January. According to Intel, "…the Serial-ATA (SATA) ports within the chipsets may degrade over time, potentially impacting the performance or functionality of SATA-linked devices such as hard disk drives and DVD-drives."

The company says it has stopped shipment of the affected chip, corrected the design issue, and begun making a new, corrected version of the support chip, which it should begin to deliver in late February of 2011.

How does this affect consumers?

If you are an early-adopter type who has already purchased a PC with a Sandy Bridge processor, you're one of relatively few: Sandy Bridge products have been available only since January 9 of this year.

As to what your next step should be, Intel stated that "consumers can continue to use their systems with confidence, while working with their computer manufacturer for a permanent solution. For further information, contact Intel at http://www.intel.com/ on the support page or contact their OEM manufacturer."

I have just updated our DIY8 article with info about the new Intel Sany Brdige chips.


January 2011 Update- Sandy Bridge?!?
Intel pulled a fast one on me, releasing new chips based on their new Sandy bridge technology - before they released an affordable Hex-core.

These chips have an exciting new developement - integrated video encoding/decoding! We do not yet know what benefit this will have for content creation and video editing. I have not heard from any of my NLE vendors that they are optimizing their code for this new technology. BUT - that doesn't mean they aren't working on it ;-)

I am concerned about the integrated graphics capability of the Sandy Bridge CPU. For years we have been warning against using motherboards with integrated graphics for NLE. I'm just not sure how this will effect the current generation of video ediitng apps, or if it will create conflicts with CUDA based graphics cards. I have also heard reports of PCIe bus limitations with the chipsets that could cause potential problems for video editors needing I/O hardware and external RAID storage.

For now we are taking a wait and see attitiude towards Sandy Bridge. If you decide to go that way, we are looking at the ASUS P8P67 P67 Motherboard and Intel Core i7-2600K processor (which you can find bundled together for about $500!). We have selected the 2600K because it can be overclocked much higher. Please note that the Sandy Bridge chips require a P67 based motherboard. I see DIY9 in our future....



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